This project aims to reach out to producers, programmers, curators, institutions and venues interested in developing a cultural exchange between Brazil and Greece on the fields of performing arts, dramaturgy, video art, theatrical sets, costume design and architecture. More specifically, it presents and represents the theatrical work of the Brazilian Company Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona, directed by José Celso Martinez Correa and intends to find a way to bring to Greece the production of the piece "As Bacantes", a musical adaptation of "The Bacchae", by Euripedes. Along with the production of at least 3 shows of the piece, the collaboration between Teatro Oficina and a greek cultural institution would include a one week program of studies and workshops exploring the creative processes and methods of this 58-year-old company, one of the most artistically and politically relevant in the Brazilian theatrical scene.

Why Teatro Oficina's "As Bacantes" in Greece, now?
Teat(r)o Oficina has always 'drunk' from multiple sources in order to re-invent itself and its productions. "As Bacantes", as the fundamental rite of the theatrical action, staged by the company several times since 1996, returns in 2016 as a way to reflect upon the critical times we face, not only in the brazilian social and political scene , but also in an evidently global political crisis. With the reproduction of this piece in Greece first , the birthplace of Euripedes and his work, and in other european theater festivals afterwards, this brazilian company is looking to deliver back to the greek and, moreover, to the european audience, the creative and destructive powers of Dionysos and his rites.
In the story of "The Bacchae", Dionysos, an outsider among the gods and men, returns to Thebes to take revenge from his prosecutors and deniers. In a similar ritualistic manner, and arriving from a reality of intense, contemporary political contradictions, Teatro Oficina's bacantes aim to carry Dionysos and the dionysian experience back to their birthplace, to declare the power of synthesis over division, the joy of living over the suffering of repression and fear, the necessity of the instinctive next to the rational, the transformation of the creative into the destructive. Because, it is in times when the oppositions, inherent to the human nature, arise with such powerful strength, that the need to look back into the primitive myths, that fund our culture, becomes so urgent.
Of course, Teatro Oficina and its visionary director suggest a very particular view over this ancient Greek tragedy, devoured by their rich aesthetics, deeply embedded in the melting pot of the Brazilian cultural manifestations. But, its a view that derives from an undeniably, deeply rooted cultural connection between the brazilian and the dionysian experience and mythology. And, it is a view, that explores in a uniquely Brazilian way the idea of freedom in life and in art, ultimately attempting to create a theatrical experience that aims for the human spirit to be lifted.

A Project for Greece 2017